Eating Smart

When You Lose Pounds, Don`t Lose Your Good Health Too

June 30, 1991|By Sue Telingator.

Let`s face it: Women are forever dieting. Weight-loss fads have included everything from liquid diets to grapefruit diets to popcorn diets. All are extreme eating plans that satisfy only one goal: to take off weight.

However, in their attempts to maintain low weight, women are sabotaging their health, says Ann Gittleman, a nutritionist and former director of nutrition at the Pritikin Longevity Center, who has co-written ``Super Nutrition for Women, A Food-Wise Guide for Health, Beauty, Energy and Immunity`` (Bantam, $10).

Gittleman says that by eating only get-skinny foods, women are short-changing themselves of a balanced complement of valuable vitamins and nutrients. ``Overall, the most important long-term result of eating well is quality longevity...it not only affects the body but mental and spiritual balance as well,`` says Gittleman.

How best to get on the right nutrition track?

First, there`s good news for steak lovers. ``One of the biggest myths women who are diet conscious believe about their diets is that meat and eggs are bad for you,`` Gittleman says, adding that Americans have ``gone overboard`` in their pursuit to purge fats from their diet.

The best course overall, however, is to limit overall daily fat intake to two tablespoons of canola or peanut oil in salad dressing and cooking, and to skimp on desserts, cheeses, and salad dressing laden with fat.

Optimizing calcium intake also is particularly important for bone strength in women-especially those over 40, whose bodies aren`t able to absorb it as well and those of their younger counterparts. Gittleman says that in addition to dairy products, leafy green vegetables such as broccoli and kale are good sources. Yet sea vegetables, plants harvested from the sea, and staples of Oriental diets, are a rich and overlooked source of calcium.